Lindsey Pritchett - Only Revolutions

For one of my extraneous reading assignments, I picked up this book I have been wanting to read for a great deal of time. It's Only Revolutions by Mark Danielewski. Though it's not entirely related to the course, it was read outside of class, thus I felt it fit the requirements of this particular assignment. 

The story is told from the perspectives of Sam and Hailey, two lovers who live in completely different time periods. You actually have to flip the book around, revolving the book from front to back, every eight pages to read the story properly. Beside every line, in the interior margin of the book, there is a list of events that happened during the time period they are in. 

The events that are listed are both minimal and huge; ranging from a treaty being signed abroad to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The story moves in confusing circles and at times it is incredibly difficult to understand. However, it is beautifully written. Mark Danielewski's writing is simply phenomenal. It's written much the same as House of Leaves, though, in my opinion, that is much easier to follow than Only Revolutions. 

Overall, the main thing I learned from this particular book is that the events that are happening now in our lives may not directly affect us now, or ever at that, but later, the impact will be there, eventually, and it will make a difference. In fact, it reminded me a lot of chaos theory and the butterfly effect: how the smallest action can create a phenomenal outcome/event somewhere else. I feel as though the two are directly related, though I wish to read the book again to be certain. As I previously stated, for a work of it's magnitude, it really is confusing.